dead battery

[canman80]

New battery I put in a month ago has already gone dead.Have yet to pull it for recharge.What other causes should i be looking for besides a bad battery??

[xssiveone]

First off, recharge the battery and have it checked to ensure it isn't the problem.

Have you added any aftermarket electrical items, such as driving lights? The charging system in these bikes is woefully inadequate for adding a lot of hi-draw stuff like that. OK for the hi-way, but they are a battery killer around town. Check the charging system as per the repair manual for proper operation. Check your main ground to ensure that it isn't all corroded. And then move on to checking for an electrical short somewhere. After charging the battery, connect a voltmeter between the positive on the battery and the positive cable. Then connect the ground cable. You shouldn't have any current flowing with the key off. If you do, then start disconnecting things, one at a time, to try and find out where your current is flowing.

[ratbyk]

Dead battery

Other causes,
1. Low charging rate.
Hook a volt meter on the battery posts. Fire up and run at 3000 RPM and watch the volt meter. It should climb to approximately 14.5 volts.
2. To many accessories running drawing off more battery power than the alternator is putting out.
While it is running turn on all the accessories that you normally run. If at 3000 RPM the battery voltage is not holding at 14.5v and is dropping even very slowly Determine which accessory is drawing to much or which accessory you can do without except in emergency. Also try the signals flashing. This system (signals has been known to draw a lot to function.
Ken/Sooke

[Bubba1954]

Was the new battery fully charged before you installed it?

Often new batteries only get a quick, or no charge at the store, and the owners often install them thinking that they are full. Unfortunately, this means that the battery's memory will keep this as the future full charge level from now on, never being able to use the full capicity of the battery. Don't feel bad though, I only learned this from a battery engineer about a year ogo myself.

As a former Goldwing owner, and avid reader of the GWRRA tech forum, I'm quite familure with this problem. Too often large touring bikes don't see the hwy often enough to keep the battery fully charged. Too many short trips around town drain the battery down over time.

My advise is to hook up a volt meter to verify that it's charging correctly <as decribed by others here>. If it's charging, then your problem is that you consume more juce running short errons around town then you are putting back into the battery. If it's not charging up to snuff, buy another stator off of ebay for about $20.

The buy a fully automatic battery tender as I did from Walmart (about $20) and keep it attached (with the quick connect plug included) when the bike is not running. This keeps the battery fully charged when the bike is not in use.

[Geezer]

Re: dead battery

Originally posted by canman80
New battery I put in a month ago has already gone dead.Have yet to pull it for recharge.What other causes should i be looking for besides a bad battery??

Check out the FAQs about this here, http://www.oregonmotorcycleparts.com/FAQ.html

Geezer

[TopCatGr58]

Battery go bye, bye!

Well, it was about time! I had replaced my battery with a standard acid battery in 2001 when I did my rebuild! I don't live in extreme cold climates, so I didn't bother putting it on a "battery tender". I DO have a charger, and would use it at the low 2amp rate every few months as needed when I wasn't riding it! I had ridden it back in the fall, was okay then. Regrettably I had allowed the electrolyte to evaporate to below the cells about a year ago. I topped it off with fresh Electrolyte that I had left over from when I first got the battery. I then recharged it, and it seemed okay.

Well, good weather was forecast for yesterday, got the Honeydo's done, and got geared up for a little ride. Turned the key, ignition lights on, hit the starter....and click, click, NADA

Pulled the battery, had 11 volts! Put it on the charger, after about an hour, checked it, couldn't see many bubbles forming Checked the voltage, almost 13, but was thinking it was probably dying, so SWMBO said "just go get a new one"....LUV HER!!

Got an el cheapo Everstart from Walmart, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS, filled with electrolyte, let it sit for an hour, then put it on the charger for several hours. Then put the OLD battery back on the charger and went to bed.

This morning, old battery 13 volts, took it and put it back into the bike, hit starter, grrrr, grrrrr, a few revs but then flat!! So...this shows how you can have a good SURFACE charge but NO LOAD capacity! I also reconnected the charger to the NEW battery, and after a few minutes, it started bubbling again. The Instructions said that I should run it on a charger for several sessions UNTIL it doesn't bubble much!!

The Purpose for this diatribe is that I got a recommendation from a fellow Xsive that had a HD friend who used a battery for 10 yrs. Once it started being very weak, he poured out the old electrolyte, then mixed up a solution of baking soda and water, and poured that into it and washed it with that for several sessions to clean off the ?oxidation? of the plates, then rinsed with plain distilled water, and then put in FRESH electolyte, recharged, and that rejuvinated the battery for a few years, then he would repeat that process again!!

Has anybody else heard of this technique, or have any comments or CONTRAINDICATIONS for doing this procedure?? I have the OLD battery and am willing to give it a try. And then IF it still doesn't work, THEN I can turn it back into Walmart for the $7.00 CORE CHARGE!!
Thanks for reading!!
T.C.

[xs650mike]

TC, you're supposed to replace evaporation with distilled water, not more electrolite. Battery in my XS400 is Walmart Ever Start, been in the bike maybe 5 years and still works fine even though I've let the electrolite go down a few times till the plates showed. Each time topped with distilled water and charged at 2 amps. I think the one in my XS650H is about 3 years old. My XS11 came to me with a new battery, haven't checked what brand.

The Walmart batteries have been improved, I used to have to put a new battery in every year on my XS twins. The batteries would show proper voltage but under load no go. I think that the newer ones are more resistant to vibration which is very pronounced on XS650s and to a lesser degree on the 400 twins.

Amusing aside: Walmart used to call their batteries "Super Crank" but they finally caught on that "crank" is a street term for methamphetamine and changed the name to "Ever Start".

[prometheus578]

&quot;You'll get a charge out of this.&quot;

I agree with the others that it's sitting in the bike and something is drawing off the juice.
There is no getting away from properly giving a battery a good first charge. Triumph will not warranty batteries unless the dealer can prove it was properly charged with the correct equipment. They have been known to actually send reps out to the dealerships to verify how, and on what, the batteries are charged.
When batteries get badly sulfated, they will hold a surface charge, but the plates are too coated with the stuff to really put out.
Someone mentioned about taking short trips. The battery uses a lot o' juice to get this thing to crank over. My short 5 minute ride to work doesn't even start to put it back in. Do that enough times... and I end up taking the truck to work.
Has to Harley Hijinks: Baking soda neutralizes acid. Whether it will also dissolve the crusted on sulfation, I don't know. 'member that the sulfation is also some of the lead from the surface of the plates. They must be getting pretty thin by now. (The happiest days in a Harley owners life: When he buys his first Harley... and when he finally sells it) (Women love Harleys... the worlds most expensive vibrator)
Walmart Core Exchange: Walmart's HUGE profits are directly related to their ploy of relying on lazy people like me not returning my lawnmower battery for the core charge.
As stated earlier, the water is what evaporates in the electrolyte solution and must be replaced. To add more acid will just... well, I don't know... but it just isn't done, that's all. (I would post something technical here, someone would call me an idiot again, and then this'll turn into the "Ahhnold post")

[skids]

Re: Battery go bye, bye!

You can cause injury to yourself by adding a base to an acid (even if dried onto the plates I think). I would shy away from the method because that battery could violently belch corrosive foam all over the garage and your face!!!

Originally posted by TopCatGr58
Has anybody else heard of this technique, or have any comments or CONTRAINDICATIONS for doing this procedure?? I have the OLD battery and am willing to give it a try. And then IF it still doesn't work, THEN I can turn it back into Walmart for the $7.00 CORE CHARGE!!
Thanks for reading!!
T.C.

[e.z.nightrider]

Amen!!! You have'nt had fun until you've had a battery explode on you. (dahik)

Ed Z.

[rneal55555]

Re: Battery go bye, bye!

The Purpose for this diatribe is that I got a recommendation from a fellow Xsive that had a HD friend who used a battery for 10 yrs. Once it started being very weak, he poured out the old electrolyte, then mixed up a solution of baking soda and water, and poured that into it and washed it with that for several sessions to clean off the ?oxidation? of the plates, then rinsed with plain distilled water, and then put in FRESH electolyte, recharged, and that rejuvinated the battery for a few years, then he would repeat that process again!!

Has anybody else heard of this technique, or have any comments or CONTRAINDICATIONS for doing this procedure?? I have the OLD battery and am willing to give it a try. And then IF it still doesn't work, THEN I can turn it back into Walmart for the $7.00 CORE CHARGE!!
Thanks for reading!!
T.C. [/B]

I don't know about that but there are Battery Chargers now that put out a pulsating charge or something that are supposed to break up the sulfation. Never used one but that's what the box says.


I too let my electrolyte level go low refilled with DI Water and charged got a 20 mile ride in a couple of weeks ago. Tried to start her last week after sitting on the Battery tender no go. Bought a new Wally World Battery Fri Put it in Sat and did about 50 miles. I guess I could have spent the do filling flushing and rinsing a battery. Hell at $40 bucks for the battery it cost me less than a $1 a mile to ride. Actually way less because I put 40 or 50 miles on the RSV after taking the Battery core back to Wally World.

[motoman]

Hey there T. C. Hate to be bearer of bad news but adding electrolyte to a low battery will kill it dead. I have tried the trick of cleaning an otherwise condemmed auto battery years ago. Even steamed cleaned after the baking soda trick to nuetralize any acid residue. Re-filled with fresh electrolyte and charged for several days at a couple amps after hitting it for bout an hour at ten amps. Was just a test that I tried at work, and ended up a waste of time. There are only four major battery manufacturers and the wal mart brand is the lowest end quality wise. Interstate is the top of the heap. They also make a generic one overseas that is the same quality as there top of the line one, but it just doesn't have the Interstate name on it. That is the one I happen to have in the Bentley, and it was $55 as opposed to the $85 one with the Interstate logo on it, but same number of plates. You pretty much get what you pay for as is the case with many other things. Next time you need a battery for any of your bikes or cagers, You may think about going to a Direct Interstate distributor and check that option out. Years ago when I owned the Bentley new, had to put in a new battery after five years and I opted for the interstate and had good luck for another five years. That was before battery tenders and such too. When it comes to wet cell batteries, they are only as good as the number of times they'll recharge. Don't kill em' and don't constantly have them on a tickle charger and you can expect bout five years out of the better quality ones. Batteries and properly maintained charging systems is an area where I get pretty nit-picky and it is kinda another one of my fortes so to speak.(guess it came from the work I was in, and wanted to avoid a midnite call in winter to go up on a pass to make charging system repairs to a snowplow.)

[prometheus578]

&quot;Shortcut to a shorted battery&quot;

Heard about the pulsating charger several years ago. Can't recall the exact conversation I had, or with whom. Do recall that it was mentioned that: all the sulfation and other crap that was clinging to the plates is now lying in a layer on the bottom, providing plate to plate contact, via the crud, shorting out the battery quicker.
Whether this is true or not... I can't say. If I recall correctly, I think the proceedure worked by alternating the polarity of the charge to get the crystals to move and flake away. Sort of like electroplating with a nickle and a dime as electrodes. Current one way... dime gets coated with nickle. Current the other way, nickle gets coated with dime. (Do it quickly enough, and you end up with two 15 cent pieces?) Huh?

[Jerry]

Has been mentioned but bears repeating.....

Change battery cables. Both pos and neg will build up corrosion between the wires and connector. These are nearly impossible to clean. Check for clean connection at neg cable to frame contact.

I went to a sealed battery several years ago, also discused in previous threads, have not added electrolyte to battery for going on 4 years.....

Had an instructor in college whe rejuvinated a "dead" auto battery. drained it, flushed it with distilled water only, refilled with new electrolyte and charged at about 1 amp for several days then switched over to an automatic charger.

Put it back in the car (a Nova, if I remember correctly) and it worked for about 4 months, (over the summer) then it died again.
My opinion: You might gain a few months of use, but you would not get a 'like new' battery after trying to rejuvinate an old one.

[motoman]

I have seen that done Jerry, but with about the same results. Don't hardly think the effort is worth being stranded between somewhere and nowhere .